Editing Pacific Northwest (section)

===Boundary disputes===
[[File:Pacific-Northwest.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|U.S. Navy Lieutenant [[Charles Wilkes]]' 1841 Map of the [[Oregon Territory]] from "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition". Philadelphia: 1845]]

Initial formal claims to the region were asserted by Spain in 1513 with explorer [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa|Nuñez de Balboa]], the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. Russian [[maritime fur trade]] activity, through the [[Russian-American Company]], extended from the farther side of the Pacific to ''[[Russian America]]''. This prompted Spain to send expeditions north to assert Spanish ownership, while Captain James Cook and subsequent expeditions by George Vancouver advanced British claims. As of the [[Nootka Convention|Nootka Sound Conventions]], the last in 1794, Spain gave up its exclusive a priori claims and agreed to share the region with the other [[Great power|powers]], giving up its garrison at Nootka Sound in the process.

The United States established a claim based on the discoveries of [[Robert Gray (sea captain)|Robert Gray]], the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]], the construction of Fort Astoria, and the acquisition of Spanish claims given to the United States in the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]].<ref name="Miller2006">{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Robert J.|title=Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccnP7tWU7hwC&pg=PA133|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-99011-4|pages=133–134}}</ref> From the 1810s until the 1840s, modern-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana, along with most of British Columbia, were part of what the United States called the [[Oregon Country]] and Britain called the [[Columbia District]]. This region was jointly claimed by the United States and Great Britain after the [[Treaty of 1818]], which established a co-dominion of interests in the region in lieu of a settlement. In 1840, American [[Charles Wilkes]] explored in the area. [[John McLoughlin]], Chief Factor of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]], headquartered at Fort Vancouver, was the ''de facto'' local political authority for most of this time.

This arrangement ended as U.S. settlement grew and President [[James K. Polk]] was elected on a platform of calling for annexation of the entire Oregon Country and of Texas. After his election, supporters coined the famous slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight", referring to [[Parallel 54°40′ north|54°40′ north latitude]]—the northward limit of the United States' claim.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/5440orfight.htm |title=Fifty-Four Forty or Fight |work=Geography.about.com |date=June 14, 2010 |access-date=August 18, 2010 |archive-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205125618/http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/5440orfight.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> After a war scare with the United Kingdom, the [[Oregon boundary dispute]] was settled in the 1846 [[Oregon Treaty]], partitioning the region along the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]] and resolving most, but not all, of the border disputes (see [[Pig War (1859)|Pig War]]).

The mainland territory north of the 49th parallel remained unincorporated until 1858, when a mass influx of Americans and others during the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] forced the hand of [[Colony of Vancouver Island]]'s Governor [[James Douglas (governor)|James Douglas]], who declared the mainland a [[Crown colony]]. The two colonies were amalgamated in 1866 to cut costs, and joined the [[Canada|Dominion of Canada]] in 1871. The U.S. portion became the [[Oregon Territory]] in 1848. It was later subdivided into Oregon Territory and [[Washington Territory]]. These territories became the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington and parts of other Western states.

During the [[American Civil War]], British Columbia officials pushed for London to invade and conquer the Washington Territory in effort to take advantage of Americans being distracted in the war on the Eastern region. This was rejected, as the UK did not wish to risk war with the United States, whose forces were better prepared and trained much more than the British troops.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/12840.ch01.pdf#page=5|title=Thwarting Southern Schemes and British Bluster in the Pacific Northwest|pages=5–6|author=James Robbins Jewell}}</ref>

American expansionist pressure on British Columbia persisted after the colony became a province of Canada, even though Americans living in the province did not harbor [[Annexationist movements of Canada|annexationist]] inclinations. The [[Fenian Brotherhood]] openly organized and drilled in Washington, particularly in the 1870s and the 1880s, though no cross-border attacks were experienced. During the [[Alaska Boundary Dispute]], U.S. President [[Teddy Roosevelt]] threatened to invade and annex British Columbia if Britain would not yield on the question of the [[Yukon]] ports. In more recent times, during the so-called "[[Pacific Salmon War|Salmon War]]" of the 1990s, Washington Senator [[Slade Gorton]] called for the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] to "force" the [[Inside Passage]], even though it is not an official international waterway. Disputes between British Columbia and Alaska over the [[Dixon Entrance]] of the [[Hecate Strait]] between [[Prince Rupert, British Columbia|Prince Rupert]] and [[Haida Gwaii]] have not been resolved.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwilson.com/pubs/energy/alaska.pdf |title=The Alaska Boundary Dispute |access-date=August 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218165011/http://www.cwilson.com/pubs/energy/alaska.pdf |archive-date=December 18, 2008 }}</ref>